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Maximizing the Potential of Your Mystical Skills
Mystical skills are the most versatile skill set in the LoRD game. T and D skills have but one option for usage, but M skills present an ever-wider range of uses as you rack them up. As a result, they have the biggest potential benefit in any given day, and they're often underused by beginning players. Knowing the uses for each spell, and how they can be used in concert, can bring what looks like luck to your game, but it's actually pure skill. Mystical Spells There are six different spells you can cast using Mystical Skills. Each one uses a certain amount of skill points. They are: These spells can be used either singly, or in combination during a single fight. Jennie GIFT will replenish all M points except your daily bonus point, but you must go to the Forest to use it. The true skill with being a Mage is knowing when and how to combine your points to make your LoRD day its best. Critical Spells for Competitive Play Solo Pinches When you start a round as an M student, you get a single Pinch. Every level-up brings one more, but they're relatively weak, multiplying your attack by 1.5. You can't count on killing higher-level players with Pinches, and you can't use them on equal- or lower-level players. They're basically useless for player fights. But they can be used in the Forest as an opportunity to try for extra Gems. Every time you use a skill, be it M, T, or D, the game treats it like a powermove, and gives you the chance to randomly earn one gem. So make your last hit during Forest fights a Pinch. Using up your Pinches every day in the Forest, while you wait for enough points to give you Heat Wave and Light Shield, is an efficient way to pad your stats against the dragon down the road. The odds of getting a gem from each Pinch is somewhere between 1/3 and 1/4, but it will add up, especially toward the end of the round, when you can pinch off most everything in the Forest. '''Any day that you're not planning on using your M skills in any particular way, your default setting should always be to Pinch things in the Forest. '''Prince/ss rescues are unpredictable and rare, but Pinch-earned gems are available every day for the taking. Light Shield This is the first long-term defensive milestone in your M skill progression. It costs 12 points. Essentially, LS doubles the effectiveness of your armor. If you start M, your first goal is to get LS by the time you reach your first dragon. Once you've passed that, you'll have it the rest of the round, for both dragons and player kills. Having LS for player kills means you can take on players with bigger equipment, players two levels higher, and players your own level, with more confidence in success. Shatter This is the first critical offensive milestone in your M skill progression. It costs 16 M points. Shatter is the most powerful skill in the entire game, outclassing T skills by half again as much. With it, you can overcome bigger armor or players two (or more) levels higher than you. Mind Heal This is the second long-term defensive milestone in your M skill progression. Usually, MH is not used except in concert with Shatter or Light Shield against the dragon, though in a pinch (ahaha) it can substitute for emergency healing (say, when you get on for a fat kill right at midnight, and you're broke, and then the Healers tell you that you have Syphilis. A quick heal lets you jump in after that kill right away--provided you still have skills left to kill it). Strategic Use of M Combinations Against the Dragon MH is prized for its near-fairy equivalent against the dragon. Time it right, and you can heal yourself when you're nearly dead, and ideally fight long enough after healing to slay it. The usual point at which players employ MH is around 500-800 remaining hit points. It all depends on which strikes you receive from the dragon; wait too long and a sudden Flame Breath can end your day. Are you feeling lucky? This is why MH is critically flawed versus fairies, which automatically kick in at the point of character death. But it's far better than nothing, and has helped many players achieve quick DKs in the latter part of their games. Many players strive to get 32 M points by their third dragon (LS + MH), but some fall short, and achieve it for their 4th dragon instead. A substitute goal for the third dragon is 28 M points (LS + Shatter). Though Shatter is not massively effective against a Dragon with 15,000 hit points, it's better than not using the skills at all. Technically, two Heat Waves (at 2.5xDmg each) would have potential to outdo the damage of a single Shatter (at 4.5xDmg). However, since the dragon possesses the ability to powermove-Flame Breath at any given moment, taking the single Shatter shot gets near-equivalent damage into the fight more quickly, leaving fewer opportunities for the dragon to kill you. If you can save nothing else for your dragon fight due to player kills/forest Disappears/etc., save Light Shield. Effectively doubling your hit points when fighting against a 15K HP creature is more likely to help you kill it than a Shatter, or even a MH, whose timing can be really iffy without LS to dampen each dragon strike. Against Single Player Kills Starting with Heat Wave, at 8 skill points, M students can become offensive fighters. HW is not as strong as a T skill, but it can give the Mage new freedom to attack. With an extra pinch or two, kills are nearly as assured as with a T skill. Once LS is achieved, attacking is usually done with T skills, until Shatter enters the picture. LS + T's is the bog-standard attack method for the middle portion of the round. Shatter alone may or may not be achieved early, depending on luck with skills and timing of switching to T. Earlier is better, of course, before players who advance more slowly or start the round later are wearing heftier equipment. LS + Shatter is usually a late-game development, and is highly effective against powerful opponents. Double Shatter is even more powerful, but the threat of being struck down in self-defense by not employing LS must be weighed carefully. The last combo achieved is MH + Shatter. Whenever a player gets the first strike, LS + Shatter is a strictly stronger combo, as it effectively doubles hit points. However, if one gets surprised for more than half their hit points, then MH gives a better chance of surviving the next hit than LS does. When T skills, HW or Shatter fall just shy of killing your target, it's Pinches to the rescue. It's always tactically wise to have a couple extra pinches above and beyond whatever M skills you're usually using. *if you have LS, go for 14+ Ms before switching back to T *if you've gotten Shatter, aim for 18 Ms before switching *when the round is drawing to a close, and you have LS + MH, another 4 Ms (good for a Disappear or some Pinches) can be a good buffer against the unexpected The Power of High Spirits: Multiple Victims When a player is in high spirits, Jennie GIFT is always an option. If there happen to be two good kills available, and you think you'll need more M skills than you possess to kill them both, then high spirits is your friend. You can use LS, Shatter, LS + Shatter, or Double Shatter, then use Jennie GIFT and do it all over again. Such accomplishments rocket players to near-superhero status (for a day, at least), and can dramatically affect their chances of winning/catching a rival/placing higher in the final standings. Tips *In all cases, M skills can be varied once the fight begins; don't limit yourself to a single course of action. Backup plans FTW. *Though Disappear (4 pts) is a useful option and can save your life, keep in mind its cost on your total M points. See above tip. *A couple extra M points earned before switching back to T can come in useful in many ways *Be aware if you're in high spirits or not; GIFT can be a powerful advancement tool Category:Skills Category:Strategy Category:Mystical